While India is making steady headway on the transmission front and the sector has witnessed commendable growth over the last few years with substantial capacity additions, the distribution or last mile connectivity is still a concern in India.

Digitalisation is just beginning to make real headway in India, what with the Centre´s ongoing focus on ´Digital India´. This coupled with the much propagated ´Make in India´ and ´Smart Cities´ initiatives are all set to pave the way for a smarter, advanced, Information Technology (IT) enabled country.

Solar technology has many unique attributes which make it one of the most preferred sources of power, particularly in India, a densely populated country with a high energy deficit - it can be rapidly deployed across most parts of the country, it is modular in nature and it is environmentally friendly.

This issue analysed the causes that led to the coal shortage and what the government´s response to that has been and which remedies can be explored. In addition, the IT in Power section covered the Perform Achieve and Trade scheme being implemented by BEE.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy´s (MNRE) ambitious programme-Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)-has seen no major participation from private players and has been marred by lack of implementation in a correct way.

In the meeting, we have put forth our various concerns right from evacuation infrastructure, how to bring down the cost of power generation, rationalise the cost for distribution infrastructure to lowering the tariffs for industrial units in Maharashtra.